So far, Ash's Pikachu has already claimed the lives of two bikes.
Theoretically, as Ash and Pikachu's journey continues, more bikes are destined to fall at Pikachu's hands.
However, according to metaphysics, every fallen bike marks the beginning of a new bond.
Misty traveled with Ash for so long, and it certainly wasn't just to collect debt.
Maybe that was the reason at first, but if she truly wanted money, heading straight to Pallet Town would have been the best choice.
Their traveling together was more about wanting to travel with a friend.
So Misty forgets about it most of the time, but that doesn't stop her from bringing it up again whenever something reminds her of it.
"Sorry, sir, we didn't mean to. Pikachu just wasn't feeling well, so that's why this happened."
"Pika pi..."
"It's fine, I have Pokémon too. I understand how these things happen. Just pay for the damage."
Rowan could understand the situation, but that didn't mean he was generous enough to just wave it off like nothing happened.
The school had insurance to fix broken glass—he didn't.
At this moment, Ash was being chased around by Misty outside. It was Brock and Pikachu who were apologizing to Rowan. After all, breaking someone else's property means you have to pay for it. That's just common sense.
"Excuse me, about that bike…"
"It's not expensive. It's second-hand anyway. Just give me 150 and we'll call it even."
He had bought the bike online during a shopping festival in his first year of school. It was only 300 after discounts. Sure, it had a few small issues, but it was still rideable, so he kept using it.
When Brock heard the number "150," he breathed a sigh of relief.
The bike had been fried to a crisp by Pikachu. You couldn't even tell what it used to look like. And with bike prices varying so widely, this could have turned into a real mess.
"Oh, by the way, 150 in Illumina currency."
"That shouldn't matter, right? All the regions use the same currency. It's no different."
"It's fine. I was just mentioning it casually."
From how things look so far, not only is there a common language, but the currency is the same too. A larger-scale standardization of units, one could say.
But just as Brock was about to pull out his wallet, his hand suddenly froze.
It wasn't that the price was high—it was just… they were out of money.
These people travel entirely on foot—except when crossing regions or needing to rush somewhere, they rarely use transportation. Once they arrive in a new area, most of their funds are immediately converted into supplies.
After all, the three of them often get lost in the mountains, and in those desolate, uninhabited places, money is just a pile of useless paper.
They only withdraw money when entering a new city, and then immediately turn it into supplies. Not long ago, they had just completed this process.
Brock wasn't new to this place either—he already understood the differences between this region and others.
People native to Illumina don't carry portable POS machines, and scan-to-pay methods common outside Illumina aren't popular here.
"Wait a moment, I'll try to scrape the money together..."
Brock and Pikachu turned around and stopped Ash and Misty, who were still running around. Unfortunately, the problem wasn't solved that easily.
The three of them had all sorts of odd items on them, just not enough cash.
Kanto region bank cards can't be used to withdraw money at just any ATM in Illumina. At the very least, they'd need to make a trip to a Pokémon Center—but the nearest one was far from here.
In the end, they turned to humanity's most ancient form of trade: bartering.
Since Pikachu belonged to Ash, it was ultimately Ash who stepped forward and handed Rowan a Poké Ball.
"Sorry for damaging your bike, but we really don't have any cash on us. Would you accept a Poké Ball as compensation?"
A standard Poké Ball was officially priced at 200 Poke Dollars, with slight regional price differences, but nothing significant.
Excluding high-quality Poké Balls like Ultra Balls and Great Balls, the price of ordinary Poké Balls isn't very high—they're affordable for the average person.
And unless you're a professional Trainer or working in Pokémon breeding, most people don't really need Poké Balls; often, they don't even use them at all.
The damage rate of Poké Balls is also low. For regular folks, they're like mobile phones—maybe you need a new one every year or two.
If Rowan hadn't had Pokémon with him, Ash probably wouldn't have thought to use a Poké Ball as payment.
"That's fine, but in that case... I owe you 50. Here you go."
Rowan actually didn't have any spare Poké Balls with him, so he accepted the offer—and gave change while he was at it.
Then Brock pulled a notebook out of his bag and wrote up something like a receipt, handing it over for Rowan to sign.
Judging by how practiced he looked, this probably wasn't the first time.
"You guys seem... a little too experienced at this."
"There's no way around it, you always encounter some surprises while traveling."
They've broken things more than a few times. Places like Pokémon Centers generally don't ask for compensation, but accidents still happen from time to time.
Brock, who has many roles, is also the Gym Leader of Pewter City and takes care of a bunch of younger siblings. So in this kind of situation, he's pretty experienced.
"Hope you have a great journey in Illumina. Maybe we'll meet again someday."
Rowan fiddled with the Poké Ball in his hand—this was the first empty one he'd ever touched.
The red-and-white ball had a button on it; long-pressing it switches the ball between storage size and usage size.
It's said that Professor Westwood V, the founder of Pokémon studies, accidentally weakened Primeape excessively during an experiment to extract its anger energy, causing Primeape to shrink small enough to fit into the professor's glasses case.
That incident became one of the inspirations for the invention of the Poké Ball. But as for how the thing actually works, Rowan didn't have much interest—he knew his limits and never intended to pursue a research path.
Whether the Poké Ball's mechanics relied on Pokémon being able to shrink on their own, or on some new kind of technology, didn't really matter to him.
With the bike matter resolved, he was ready to leave. He'd long grown sick of the food around the school back in the day, but too much time had passed when he crossed over, so returning here now felt quite nostalgic.
But just then, Ash called out to him.
"Wait a second!"
"Hm? Is there something else? This matter is already settled."
"Well… now that we've kind of gotten to know each other, could we have a Pokémon battle?"
The reason Ash called out to Rowan was simple. As someone who's passionate about battling, Ash always challenges all kinds of people to Pokémon battles.
Including but not limited to rookie Trainers from new regions, long-famous Gym Leaders or Elite Four members, Champions, and random passersby who just give off the right vibe.
After settling the bike compensation, Ash had curiously scanned Nekomi with his Pokédex, but his device hadn't been updated with Pokémon from the Paldea region, so it came up with nothing.
Since Rowan was carrying a Pokémon that Ash didn't recognize and which was clearly from a new region, he naturally happened to fall within the range of Ash's choice of battle targets.